Did US Government Lie About TWA Flight 800 Crash? Ex-Investigators Seek Probe as New Evidence Emerges

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Seventeen years ago, TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island, killing all 230 people aboard. The official government investigation blamed mechanical failure, but now a group of former investigators are petitioning the National Transportation Safety Board to reopen the probe, saying the original report was falsified. Was the plane accidentally shot down by the U.S. Navy conducting a nearby exercise, or was it a terrorist attack? We speak to the filmmakers behind a new documentary on the crash, "TWA Flight 800," former CBS News producer Kristina Borjesson and Tom Stalcup, a physicist and co-founder of Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization. We also play an extended excerpt of the film "Shadows of Liberty," which also explores the controversy.

TRANSCRIPT:

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We begin with a look at shocking new claims about an airplane crash that happened 17 years ago. More than 200 people were killed when TWA Flight 800 burst into flames just minutes after taking off from New York on July 17th, 1996. The cause of that explosion has been in dispute ever since. Government investigators say it was most likely triggered by a failure in the plane’s electrical system. But many witnesses say they saw a streak a light move toward the plane before the explosion.

Now, six investigators who participated in the original probe of the crash have come forward to request that the case be reopened. They have petitioned the National Transportation Safety Board to reactivate its investigation. Their stories are featured in a new film directed by Kristina Borjesson, a former CBS News producer. We’ll be joined by her later in the broadcast, but first we look at Kristina’s 17-year struggle to discover what happened on the night TWA Flight 800 went down. Her story is featured in the film Shadows of Liberty, directed by Jean-Philippe Tremblay. This clip also includes former Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom, former New York congressional aide Kelly O’Meara and journalist Philip Weiss.

NARRATOR: On the night of July 17th, 1996, Flight TWA 800 was en route from New York City to Paris carrying 230 passengers when disaster struck.

CNNANCHOR: Bringing you up to date, a TWA flight, a 747 aircraft, has gone down.

REPORTER: You see in the water down there, it is the burning wreckage from that plane.

KRISTINABORJESSON: That day, I was at CBS, and my executive producer called me down and told me to look into it. And it completely changed my life, shifted my paradigm.

NARRATOR: As Borjesson investigated the crash for CBS News, many people reported something disturbing they had seen in the night sky.

KRISTINABORJESSON: All these eyewitnesses said they had seen something go up. Then they followed it up to where the plane was. And then, all of a sudden the plane exploded.

NARRATOR: With different reports emerging about TWA 800, the FBI declared the surrounding area a crime scene.

JAMESKALLSTROM: If it is a terrorist event, we then have the challenge to find out who the perpetrators were, who the cowards were that did this.

NARRATOR: As Navy divers were called to recover the plane’s wreckage, rumors of friendly fire emerged.

KRISTINABORJESSON: That first FBI press conference I went to, some guy raised his hand, and he said, "Why is the Navy involved in the recovery when they are suspects?

JAMESKALLSTROM: Remove him. Remove him.

REPORTER: The Navy is a suspect.

SECURITYGUARD: Let’s go. Come on.

REPORTER: The Navy is a suspect.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Kallstrom just pointed at him, and he goes, "Remove him!" And then everybody continued as if—as if this hadn’t happened. And to my mind, we should have all pressed on that question.

JAMESKALLSTROM: ...the United States military that friendly fire was not involved in this incident. And I used the strongest terms I could use: I said it was highly, highly, highly, highly, highly unlikely.

NARRATOR: Despite FBI denials, Borjesson’s research uncovered a different scenario, based on the Navy’s activity on the night of the disaster.

KRISTINABORJESSON: When they released the radar information, they only gave half of it. They cut it off right when you can see that there were all these military vessels in this exercise zone that was right there.

KELLY O’MEARA: Not only were there ships there, but there actually was a live fire exercise going on off the coast that night, and that’s why they had closed down the flight corridor that is parallel to the commercial flight path.

KELLY O’MEARA: When there’s a distress, you’re supposed to, by law of the sea, go and try and help. These ships went in the absolute opposite direction away from the crash site, and at 30 knots.

NARRATOR: The search for clear-cut evidence continued. And Borjesson was offered a piece of seat fabric from the plane that had undergone preliminary testing.

PHILIPWEISS: The test had revealed that there were heavy metals in it that were consistent with a missile strike that went through the plane at a certain point where this seat was very close to. And Kristina received a sample to do independent verification.

KRISTINABORJESSON: I mean, it was just amazing. How many times do you get hard evidence from something? I had no idea there was going to be any problem whatsoever.

NARRATOR: As CBS News gave Borjesson the go-ahead to accept the seat fabric, she was close to discovering whether a missile strike had brought down the plane.

KRISTINABORJESSON: And I was looking around for a lab, and that’s when the FBI called and said, "You have a piece of stolen evidence." To my great disappointment and dismay, CBS just gave it right back.

NEWSANCHOR:CBS has given federal investigators a piece of cloth purportedly from the downed TWA Flight 800. The FBI wanted the fabric because it is investigating whether evidence...

PHILIPWEISS:CBS folded. Like an ice cube in the sun, they just went. They decided this is not a story we’re going to fight for. It was a great moment of spinelessness on the corporate media’s part.

JAMESKALLSTROM: No evidence has been found which would indicate that a criminal act was the cause of the tragedy of TWA Flight 800. The law enforcement team has looked at every theory and has left no stone unturned.

NARRATOR: With eyewitness accounts of a possible missile strike still unexplained, the CIA produced an animation that was broadcast nationally.

PHILIPWEISS: When they showed that animation, it wasn’t like they then went out and talked to the fishing boat captain who had seen something completely different.

CIAANIMATION: Flames, visible to eyewitnesses more than 40 miles away...

PHILIPWEISS: I did. And they said, "This is ridiculous. This does not describe what I saw."

CIAANIMATION: As the aircraft descended, it produced an increasingly visible fire trail.

KRISTINABORJESSON: The video was shown on network TV. It was shown nationally. It was shown over and over.

CIAANIMATION: To date, there is no evidence that any eyewitness saw a missile shoot down TWA Flight 800.

PHILIPWEISS: The press bought it. The press bought the government’s version of events.

NARRATOR: At the time of the disaster, Westinghouse, a nuclear power company and major defense contractor, owned CBS News.

KELLY O’MEARA: Any logical person would go, "Well, where does the vast majority of their money come from? Government contracting." If Kristina were getting too close to the truth, would they shut down the investigation, or would they lose their government contracts? I mean, these are logical questions that you have to wonder. What’s more important to CBS?

NARRATOR: Ultimately, Borjesson’s pursuit of what happened that night challenged the priorities of corporate media.

KRISTINABORJESSON: I walked into this meeting of news executives, and I said, "Why aren’t we recovering this?" And one guy looks up at me, and he goes, "Oh, you think it’s a missile, don’t you?" And I said, "I don’t know what it is, but I’ll tell you, it’s not a straightforward thing. There’s something going on here." And there was just this silence, and I was just looking out at this sea of white shirts. And as I turned around and left, I just thought, "God, you know, my goose is cooked here." And it was, you know? I was out a few weeks later.

NARRATOR: The government’s official explanation of the disaster—mechanical failure—hasn’t been proven, and questions still remain.

KRISTINABORJESSON: I can’t tell you with absolute certainty what happened. When that many people die, you owe it to them and to the other people who are getting on those planes every day to find out what really happened.

AMYGOODMAN: That was Kristina Borjesson from the film Shadows of Liberty, directed by Jean-Philippe Tremblay. Kristina Borjesson has just made a new documentary, along with physicist Tom Stalcup, called TWA Flight 800. They’ll join us after break to talk about their new film and the call for a reopening of the TWA crash investigation. We’ll also play excerpts from the new film. Stay with us.

[break]

AMYGOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We continue our coverage over shocking new claims about the crash of TWA Flight 800 that killed 230 people on July 17th, 1996. The plane burst into flames off the coast of New York just minutes after takeoff. A government investigation concluded the cause of the explosion was a mechanical failure. But on Wednesday, a group of investigators who participated in that probe submitted a petition to the National Transportation Safety Board asking them to reopen the case.

The investigators say they have, quote, "reviewed the FAA radar evidence along with new evidence not available to the NTSB during the official investigation and [they] contend that the NTSB’s probable cause determination is erroneous and should be reconsidered." Among those who have come forward is former senior NTSB accident investigator Hank Hughes. He is featured in a new film called TWA Flight 800 that premieres on the premium TV channel EPIX next month.

HANKHUGHES: My report, which was 496 pages in length, or thereabouts, with photographic supplement, was cut and amended without my knowledge. When I did find out about it, I complained. Nothing was done. We were required to provide a factual report, but ordered not to write an analysis.

KRISTINABORJESSON: What? Could you say that again?

HANKHUGHES: We were directed to write a factual report, but not an analysis.

KRISTINABORJESSON: What would your analysis have been?

HANKHUGHES: The primary—primary conclusion was the explosive forces came from outside the airplane, not the center fuel tank.

TOMSTALCUP: Would that statement have been in your analysis?

HANKHUGHES: If I got the right one.

AMYGOODMAN: That was former NTSB senior accident investigator Hank Hughes from the new documentary, TWA Flight 800, which premieres on EPIX July 17th, exactly 17 years after the crash.

For more, we’re joined here in New York by the film’s director, investigative reporter and former CBS producer Kristina Borjesson. And we’re also joined by Tom Stalcup, the film’s co-producer. He’s also a physicist and co-founder of Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Tom just made it over here from The Today Show, where he was interviewed. Kristina Borjesson, it has been a long haul for you—

KRISTINABORJESSON: Yes.

AMYGOODMAN: —from investigating this for CBS News, where you were ultimately forced out as you tried this investigation. Talk about the significance of the latest information and why the investigators are petitioning to reopen this investigation.

KRISTINABORJESSON: The significance of it is that it is the hard evidence that has been reviewed and is being presented by the government’s own former, you know, members of the official investigation. And the other thing is, is that for the first time the eyewitnesses are brought in as a credible piece of the investigation. And as you know, in any investigation, it doesn’t matter whether it’s cops or reporters or whatever, the key to those investigations are firsthand sources, evidence and eyewitnesses. And these have been brought together, and that’s why it’s significant. It’s not commentators or...

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And under the NTSB’s own regulations, if there is new evidence that they did not consider previously or direct proof that their conclusion was erroneous, they have the ability to reopen the investigation. So what are the particular—the evidence that they are raising now, these investigators are raising?

KRISTINABORJESSON: I think that Tom, as our science guy on the film, is...

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Or, Tom, yes, if you could answer that?

TOMSTALCUP: Sure. The most significant piece of evidence that we have analyzed, that the NTSB has not analyzed, is the initial detonation that caused the crash. This was recorded by multiple FAA radar sites. And it was consistent and corroborates the eyewitness reports. The eyewitnesses reported something going up, heading out down towards that airplane, a long distance, colliding with it in a perpendicular fashion, detonating near or at the aircraft. Now, once it detonated, it’s just a mess out there, and particles fly along that same trajectory. So you would expect, if that really did happen, you would see evidence of that. And, yes, in fact, the radar evidence—the radar sites along Long Island picked up that exact event—supersonic debris exiting the right side of the—right side of the aircraft, consistent with the trajectory of that object.

AMYGOODMAN: I want to turn to a clip from your new film, TWA Flight 800, featuring Jim Speer, former accident investigator for the Air Line Pilots Association, talking about how he took a piece of the airplane and brought it to the FBI field lab for testing.

JIMSPEER: I knocked on the door and said, "I hear you have a machine to test for nitrates in here." And they said, "Yes, we do." And I said, "Can you show me how it works?" And they said, "Sure. We’ll run a test sample for you." And I said, "Well, how about you running my test sample? Swab this piece, and check that for me." And so they did. And, sure enough, it tested positive, which I was sure it would do—positive for residue of high explosions. So, they picked up the phone and called somebody. In 90 seconds, three FBI agents ran in the room in their coats and ties and physically pushed me aside and wouldn’t let me hear the conversation. Then they turned to me and said, "The machine has frequent false positives."

TOMSTALCUP: Sure. And what we found throughout this documentary, by interviewing the FBI chemists who were aware of that—that EGIS machine that had those explosive detections, they do not have frequent false positives. The positive detection that Jim Speer found within a week of the crash was a confirmed explosive hit on the right wing. That made The New York Times, but quickly disappeared from the government’s investigation—actually physically disappeared, as well.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, of course, the final conclusion of the NTSB was their belief that the cause was an electrical spark that ended up causing an explosion of the fuel tank in the plane?

TOMSTALCUP: That’s correct. They believe that it was an actual spark. But again, it’s very important to understand, that’s a low-velocity explosion. They said it was a subsonic deflagration. It’s not even an explosion; it’s more of an eruption. It just kind of went forward. So it was a forward-moving, low-speed eruption. What we have is a sideways-moving, high-speed detonation four times the speed of sound.

AMYGOODMAN: Let’s got to one of the eyewitnesses from your film, from TWA Flight 800, featuring some of the eyewitnesses who say they saw the plane explode.

EYEWITNESS 1: Go outside, turn to the left.

EYEWITNESS 2: Just happened to look up in the sky.

EYEWITNESS 1: And I see something that’s going across, right in my line of sight.

EYEWITNESS 3: I actually see something behind a tree line, more or less like my thumb, go up in the air.

EYEWITNESS 4: I saw what appeared to be cheap fireworks.

EYEWITNESS 5: I noticed a streak of light heading up towards the sky.

EYEWITNESS 6: I saw this white light shoot up in the sky.

EYEWITNESS 7: There’s something going up in the sky.

EYEWITNESS 8: This rocket went up in the air.

EYEWITNESS 2: And I seen this white light, and I said, "Oh, someone shot off a flare."

EYEWITNESS 9: And it looked like a flare going up. And then, the very next day, the FBI came to talk to me. It was almost abusive, in a sense. They took me into the back room. They said, "Well, we heard that you saw something. Tell us what you saw." I told them what I saw, and they looked me straight in the face and said, "You did not see that. You saw nothing."

AMYGOODMAN: And other eyewitnesses talked about that kind of abuse. One of the women who we just saw said, Kristina Borjesson, when they came to her, the FBI, just to take her testimony about what she saw, they—after she said this, what did they tell her?

KRISTINABORJESSON: They said to her, "Well, you have your papers in to become an American citizen, don’t you?" And she said, "Yes." And they said, "Well, if you want to become an American citizen, you’d best be very quiet about this." And she said, "And so, I kept quiet, and I never spoke about it."

AMYGOODMAN: The CIA later released an animated film about the explosion and investigation of TWA Flight 800.

CIAFILM: Of particular concern to FBI investigators were reports from dozens of eyewitnesses who, on the evening of July 17th, recalled seeing an object, usually described as a flare or firework, ascend and culminate in an explosion. Was it a missile? Did foreign terrorists destroy the aircraft? At the request of the FBI, CIA weapons analysts looked into this possibility.

The CIA’s conclusion? The eyewitnesses did not see a missile. Just after the aircraft exploded, it pitched up abruptly and climbed several thousand feet, from 13,800 feet to about 17,000 feet. Those who said they saw something ascend and culminate in an explosion probably saw the burning aircraft ascend and erupt into a fireball, not a missile. To date, there is no evidence that anyone saw a missile shoot down TWA Flight 800.

AMYGOODMAN: Now, that was a CIA film. Tom Stalcup, that film is what got you involved in this case. Where were you when you saw that?

TOMSTALCUP: I was on my couch watching TV. And the FBI came on. I said, "Oh, they’re talking about this plane crash. I’ll watch." And then Jim Kallstrom announced this—this video. "Hey, watch this video." And all of a sudden the big emblem of CIA came on and struck me as a little bit odd. And they kept saying, like you saw, "Not a missile." And so I turned to my girlfriend. I said, "Must have been a missile." So, ever since then, we’ve looked into the crash, and in fact it appears that it really was.

AMYGOODMAN: But, so—

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, and also, it’s kind of—it’s extraordinary to have the CIA doing what is, in essence, a propaganda video on an internal domestic incident here in the United States, that they say has nothing to do with terrorism or any—or any direct attack on this plane.

TOMSTALCUP: I agree. And I think it’s actually illegal to do domestic propaganda. I think they’re only allowed to do that internationally.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Well, then—yeah, that was an interesting—

AMYGOODMAN: And it was Jim Kallstrom that presenting this video when they were closing up their investigation?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Yeah. I mean, basically, he presented that video as a reason for the FBI backing out. But, you know, speaking of the CIA involvement, I think it’s really important to—that people know that the CIA was involved, from day two?

TOMSTALCUP: Yes.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Of the crash. From day two of the crash, the CIA was involved to handle the eyewitnesses.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And not the FBI?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Not the—well, the FBI was going around collecting witness statements, which, by the way, it’s very interesting, because they don’t record the statements when they get them. They just write up notes, and then they write up their notes of the investigations, as opposed—the interviews, as opposed to actually recording the interviews, which is—which the NTSB does do.

AMYGOODMAN: Wouldn’t the CIA be involved if they were looking to see if it was a foreign terrorist?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Well, yes, but as witness analysts?

AMYGOODMAN: You mean questioning the analysts.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Yes.

TOMSTALCUP: Yeah, well, let me just respond to that.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Mm-hmm.

TOMSTALCUP: In the very beginning, I think they were doing the right thing. They were actually giving advice, like, "Oh, this is what a foreign terrorist missile would do." But soon thereafter, within a couple weeks, their focus changed to providing, you know, technical assistance to the FBI to explaining to the FBI what the eyewitnesses saw. And as I say, actually contrary to what the FBI investigators were determining, they actually were coming out with a report, within two weeks of the crash, saying that it was most likely a missile.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, let’s go to a clip of former FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom, who led the criminal investigation into TWA Flight 800. Here he is speaking on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on Wednesday, responding to a question about the claims made by the former investigators in your film.

JAMESKALLSTROM: I think it’s preposterous, quite frankly, Jake. You know, I understand now, just from the little bit I read in the paper, that they’re retired. You know, if they felt that way back then, they could have come to me. I was—you know, I was someone desiring to get to the bottom of this thing, believe me. And I had a reputation for not—you know, not pussyfooting around. Yet, it seems like they’ve comfortably waited 'til they have their pensions before they became whistleblowers. So I think it's a bunch of bull crap. I don’t really understand that, if they felt that strongly. And I don’t—knowing the people at NTSB and the science that they brought to it, you know, for them to disregard something that was important or correct, I just don’t see that that’s possible. I have no idea why they came forward now, other than the fact maybe it’s a good time for, you know, this idea of blowing whistles and making documentaries.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Could you respond to James Kallstrom’s comments about the investigators in the film, Kristina, and also talk about the claim that they came forward because this is, quote, "a good time for the idea of blowing whistles"?

KRISTINABORJESSON: I mean, first of all, let me just say this to—if he says that they could have come to him, these guys—Hank Hughes actually testified before a judicial committee about the problems with the FBI’s investigation. He complained—for example, Tom Thurman, who was going around pulling out pieces of—you know, pieces of debris from the seats, without any regard for trajectory, which is very important. Ricky Hahn, part of Mr. Kallstrom’s team, who was banging on pieces of debris, which is, of course, altering evidence. So, why would they want to come to Mr. Kallstrom and his team? They were deeply troubled by what they were doing. And they did try and speak out at that time. So, I mean, he’s wrong on both of those counts.

AMYGOODMAN: I mean, it’s interesting. What he might be right about, he says, what? They wanted to wait to get their pensions before they spoke out. Maybe that’s true, when you see what happens to people today, whistleblowers within agencies, that they were afraid for their livelihoods.

KRISTINABORJESSON: I think that was only one piece of it, because if you’re trying to blow the whistle and you get smacked while you’re doing it, you’re not inclined to continue doing it, yes, until you retire.

AMYGOODMAN: Let’s go to a clip of Richard Bott of the Naval Air Warfare Center responding to the claim a missile could have caused the explosion. This is also from the film, TWA Flight 800.

RICHARDBOTT: It’s possible that several types of missiles could have been in the vicinity of TWA Flight 800 at the time of the—the mishap. But the possibility that that occurred is—is hard to imagine.

AMYGOODMAN: What about that, Tom Stalcup?

TOMSTALCUP: Yes, he actually wrote a report for the NTSB called "The Missile Impact Analysis Report." And in that report, he says, "Well, there’s no evidence, except there is this hole in the left side of the plane, which seems to be—if it was anything, it was a missile coming down from above. And that just seems," like he said here, "hard to imagine." Well, that’s exactly what the eyewitnesses reported, something coming from the left.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, we reached out to the FBI and the NTSB, asking them to join us on this morning’s show. The FBI has not responded. The NTSB declined to join us; however, they did release a statement Wednesday saying they would review the petition asking them to reopen the investigation into the explosion. They wrote, quote, "The TWA Flight 800 investigation lasted four years and remains one of the NTSB’s most detailed investigations. Investigators took great care reviewing, documenting and analyzing facts and data and the NTSB held a five-day hearing to gather additional facts before determining the probable cause of the accident during a two-day Board meeting."

According to the NTSB’s report on the explosion, quote, "the probable cause of the TWA flight 800 accident was an explosion of the center wing fuel tank (CWT), resulting from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank. The source of ignition energy for the explosion could not be determined with certainty, but, of the sources evaluated by the investigation, the most likely was a short circuit outside of the [CWT] that allowed excessive voltage to enter it through electrical wiring associated with the fuel quantity indication system."

Now I want to play a clip from the film TWA Flight 800 of Rocky Miller, accident investigator for the flight attendants’ union, and Jim Speer, accident investigator for the Air Line Pilots Association, responding to that finding.

ROCKYMILLER: We never found any of that. We didn’t find any evidence in the wiring on the aircraft that would have indicated that a spark occurred inside the center wing tank that would blow it up.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Did anybody in the investigation find this wiring?

ROCKYMILLER: Not to my knowledge, no.

JIMSPEER: The only wiring in the center fuel tank is to the fuel quantity gauge, and that’s a fine wire meant for milliamps is. The main power on the airplane is 115 volts AC, It would have taken 1,200 volts to arc the fuel quantity probe, and there’s no 1,200-volt electricity on the airplane, outside of the engine igniters. And that’s in—it’s individual to each engine. So, the cause of the ignition of the center fuel tank had to be something other than airplane electronics.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Jim Speer of the Air Line Pilots Association. Your response to some of the NTSB’s claims, as well as their rebuttal?

TOMSTALCUP: Yes, well, you know, the center wing tank vapors could have exploded, but this isn’t news. I mean, Boeing knew this. They actually design their tanks to always assume that they have explosive vapors in those tanks. What they do is they design it so there’s no way high voltage can get into these tanks. The wires that go to those lines that he was talking about, those low-voltage lines, are protected by a nylon sheet that’s impregnated with varnish. To have any kind of chafe cutting through that nylon and then getting that short circuit, I just can’t see how that’s possible. And, actually, the NTSB, sorry, has never duplicated that spark from airplane electronics.

AMYGOODMAN: And this issue of the naval exercise that was taking place, Kristina?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Well, I mean, that’s part—we put that in the circumstantial evidence pile. And we don’t discuss it, because it isn’t hard evidence. It isn’t firsthand source. And unless an—and that’s why we are submitting this petition, because it is something that should be examined further. But, you know, we’re—

AMYGOODMAN: What was going on at the time?

KRISTINABORJESSON: There was a military exercise going on at the time in the area, and they had activated some warning areas, some warning areas there. And there were all kinds of vessels out there. But, again, we don’t—we don’t go there, because there is no—we don’t have—we don’t have any hard evidence.

AMYGOODMAN: So why call to reopen this?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Because it needs to be looked at, because the actual cause of the crash is an ordnance explosion outside the airplane. So, obviously, that’s not a center wing fuel tank explosion.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But there is a—you do have factual evidence of the role that the Navy played in the original investigation, don’t you, in terms of what you found out about their role?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Well, I mean, they were—they were a huge part of the recovery. They recovered the wreckage. It was very interesting that Navy divers went and dove by themselves for a few days before they allowed the NTSB divers—the NYPD divers to go in. The CBS’s law enforcement consultant, Paul Ragonese, who was friendly with those guys, they told him that. So, there were some odd things going on from the very beginning.

AMYGOODMAN: Well, this film is going to air, your film, Kristina Borjesson and Tom Stalcup, on July 17th, 17 years after the explosion of TWA Flight 800. And that’s the name of the film, TWA Flight 800. It will air on EPIX on July 17th. That does it for this segment. We’ll continue to follow this story. Stay with us.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Juan González co-host's Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman. González has been a professional journalist for more than 30 years and a staff columnist at the New York Daily News since 1987. He is a two-time recipient of the George Polk Award.

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 1,100 public television and radio stations worldwide. Time Magazine named Democracy Now! its "Pick of the Podcasts," along with NBC's Meet the Press.

Did US Government Lie About TWA Flight 800 Crash? Ex-Investigators Seek Probe as New Evidence Emerges

Media

Seventeen years ago, TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island, killing all 230 people aboard. The official government investigation blamed mechanical failure, but now a group of former investigators are petitioning the National Transportation Safety Board to reopen the probe, saying the original report was falsified. Was the plane accidentally shot down by the U.S. Navy conducting a nearby exercise, or was it a terrorist attack? We speak to the filmmakers behind a new documentary on the crash, "TWA Flight 800," former CBS News producer Kristina Borjesson and Tom Stalcup, a physicist and co-founder of Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization. We also play an extended excerpt of the film "Shadows of Liberty," which also explores the controversy.

TRANSCRIPT:

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We begin with a look at shocking new claims about an airplane crash that happened 17 years ago. More than 200 people were killed when TWA Flight 800 burst into flames just minutes after taking off from New York on July 17th, 1996. The cause of that explosion has been in dispute ever since. Government investigators say it was most likely triggered by a failure in the plane’s electrical system. But many witnesses say they saw a streak a light move toward the plane before the explosion.

Now, six investigators who participated in the original probe of the crash have come forward to request that the case be reopened. They have petitioned the National Transportation Safety Board to reactivate its investigation. Their stories are featured in a new film directed by Kristina Borjesson, a former CBS News producer. We’ll be joined by her later in the broadcast, but first we look at Kristina’s 17-year struggle to discover what happened on the night TWA Flight 800 went down. Her story is featured in the film Shadows of Liberty, directed by Jean-Philippe Tremblay. This clip also includes former Assistant FBI Director James Kallstrom, former New York congressional aide Kelly O’Meara and journalist Philip Weiss.

NARRATOR: On the night of July 17th, 1996, Flight TWA 800 was en route from New York City to Paris carrying 230 passengers when disaster struck.

CNNANCHOR: Bringing you up to date, a TWA flight, a 747 aircraft, has gone down.

REPORTER: You see in the water down there, it is the burning wreckage from that plane.

KRISTINABORJESSON: That day, I was at CBS, and my executive producer called me down and told me to look into it. And it completely changed my life, shifted my paradigm.

NARRATOR: As Borjesson investigated the crash for CBS News, many people reported something disturbing they had seen in the night sky.

KRISTINABORJESSON: All these eyewitnesses said they had seen something go up. Then they followed it up to where the plane was. And then, all of a sudden the plane exploded.

NARRATOR: With different reports emerging about TWA 800, the FBI declared the surrounding area a crime scene.

JAMESKALLSTROM: If it is a terrorist event, we then have the challenge to find out who the perpetrators were, who the cowards were that did this.

NARRATOR: As Navy divers were called to recover the plane’s wreckage, rumors of friendly fire emerged.

KRISTINABORJESSON: That first FBI press conference I went to, some guy raised his hand, and he said, "Why is the Navy involved in the recovery when they are suspects?

JAMESKALLSTROM: Remove him. Remove him.

REPORTER: The Navy is a suspect.

SECURITYGUARD: Let’s go. Come on.

REPORTER: The Navy is a suspect.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Kallstrom just pointed at him, and he goes, "Remove him!" And then everybody continued as if—as if this hadn’t happened. And to my mind, we should have all pressed on that question.

JAMESKALLSTROM: ...the United States military that friendly fire was not involved in this incident. And I used the strongest terms I could use: I said it was highly, highly, highly, highly, highly unlikely.

NARRATOR: Despite FBI denials, Borjesson’s research uncovered a different scenario, based on the Navy’s activity on the night of the disaster.

KRISTINABORJESSON: When they released the radar information, they only gave half of it. They cut it off right when you can see that there were all these military vessels in this exercise zone that was right there.

KELLY O’MEARA: Not only were there ships there, but there actually was a live fire exercise going on off the coast that night, and that’s why they had closed down the flight corridor that is parallel to the commercial flight path.

KELLY O’MEARA: When there’s a distress, you’re supposed to, by law of the sea, go and try and help. These ships went in the absolute opposite direction away from the crash site, and at 30 knots.

NARRATOR: The search for clear-cut evidence continued. And Borjesson was offered a piece of seat fabric from the plane that had undergone preliminary testing.

PHILIPWEISS: The test had revealed that there were heavy metals in it that were consistent with a missile strike that went through the plane at a certain point where this seat was very close to. And Kristina received a sample to do independent verification.

KRISTINABORJESSON: I mean, it was just amazing. How many times do you get hard evidence from something? I had no idea there was going to be any problem whatsoever.

NARRATOR: As CBS News gave Borjesson the go-ahead to accept the seat fabric, she was close to discovering whether a missile strike had brought down the plane.

KRISTINABORJESSON: And I was looking around for a lab, and that’s when the FBI called and said, "You have a piece of stolen evidence." To my great disappointment and dismay, CBS just gave it right back.

NEWSANCHOR:CBS has given federal investigators a piece of cloth purportedly from the downed TWA Flight 800. The FBI wanted the fabric because it is investigating whether evidence...

PHILIPWEISS:CBS folded. Like an ice cube in the sun, they just went. They decided this is not a story we’re going to fight for. It was a great moment of spinelessness on the corporate media’s part.

JAMESKALLSTROM: No evidence has been found which would indicate that a criminal act was the cause of the tragedy of TWA Flight 800. The law enforcement team has looked at every theory and has left no stone unturned.

NARRATOR: With eyewitness accounts of a possible missile strike still unexplained, the CIA produced an animation that was broadcast nationally.

PHILIPWEISS: When they showed that animation, it wasn’t like they then went out and talked to the fishing boat captain who had seen something completely different.

CIAANIMATION: Flames, visible to eyewitnesses more than 40 miles away...

PHILIPWEISS: I did. And they said, "This is ridiculous. This does not describe what I saw."

CIAANIMATION: As the aircraft descended, it produced an increasingly visible fire trail.

KRISTINABORJESSON: The video was shown on network TV. It was shown nationally. It was shown over and over.

CIAANIMATION: To date, there is no evidence that any eyewitness saw a missile shoot down TWA Flight 800.

PHILIPWEISS: The press bought it. The press bought the government’s version of events.

NARRATOR: At the time of the disaster, Westinghouse, a nuclear power company and major defense contractor, owned CBS News.

KELLY O’MEARA: Any logical person would go, "Well, where does the vast majority of their money come from? Government contracting." If Kristina were getting too close to the truth, would they shut down the investigation, or would they lose their government contracts? I mean, these are logical questions that you have to wonder. What’s more important to CBS?

NARRATOR: Ultimately, Borjesson’s pursuit of what happened that night challenged the priorities of corporate media.

KRISTINABORJESSON: I walked into this meeting of news executives, and I said, "Why aren’t we recovering this?" And one guy looks up at me, and he goes, "Oh, you think it’s a missile, don’t you?" And I said, "I don’t know what it is, but I’ll tell you, it’s not a straightforward thing. There’s something going on here." And there was just this silence, and I was just looking out at this sea of white shirts. And as I turned around and left, I just thought, "God, you know, my goose is cooked here." And it was, you know? I was out a few weeks later.

NARRATOR: The government’s official explanation of the disaster—mechanical failure—hasn’t been proven, and questions still remain.

KRISTINABORJESSON: I can’t tell you with absolute certainty what happened. When that many people die, you owe it to them and to the other people who are getting on those planes every day to find out what really happened.

AMYGOODMAN: That was Kristina Borjesson from the film Shadows of Liberty, directed by Jean-Philippe Tremblay. Kristina Borjesson has just made a new documentary, along with physicist Tom Stalcup, called TWA Flight 800. They’ll join us after break to talk about their new film and the call for a reopening of the TWA crash investigation. We’ll also play excerpts from the new film. Stay with us.

[break]

AMYGOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We continue our coverage over shocking new claims about the crash of TWA Flight 800 that killed 230 people on July 17th, 1996. The plane burst into flames off the coast of New York just minutes after takeoff. A government investigation concluded the cause of the explosion was a mechanical failure. But on Wednesday, a group of investigators who participated in that probe submitted a petition to the National Transportation Safety Board asking them to reopen the case.

The investigators say they have, quote, "reviewed the FAA radar evidence along with new evidence not available to the NTSB during the official investigation and [they] contend that the NTSB’s probable cause determination is erroneous and should be reconsidered." Among those who have come forward is former senior NTSB accident investigator Hank Hughes. He is featured in a new film called TWA Flight 800 that premieres on the premium TV channel EPIX next month.

HANKHUGHES: My report, which was 496 pages in length, or thereabouts, with photographic supplement, was cut and amended without my knowledge. When I did find out about it, I complained. Nothing was done. We were required to provide a factual report, but ordered not to write an analysis.

KRISTINABORJESSON: What? Could you say that again?

HANKHUGHES: We were directed to write a factual report, but not an analysis.

KRISTINABORJESSON: What would your analysis have been?

HANKHUGHES: The primary—primary conclusion was the explosive forces came from outside the airplane, not the center fuel tank.

TOMSTALCUP: Would that statement have been in your analysis?

HANKHUGHES: If I got the right one.

AMYGOODMAN: That was former NTSB senior accident investigator Hank Hughes from the new documentary, TWA Flight 800, which premieres on EPIX July 17th, exactly 17 years after the crash.

For more, we’re joined here in New York by the film’s director, investigative reporter and former CBS producer Kristina Borjesson. And we’re also joined by Tom Stalcup, the film’s co-producer. He’s also a physicist and co-founder of Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization.

We welcome you both to Democracy Now! Tom just made it over here from The Today Show, where he was interviewed. Kristina Borjesson, it has been a long haul for you—

KRISTINABORJESSON: Yes.

AMYGOODMAN: —from investigating this for CBS News, where you were ultimately forced out as you tried this investigation. Talk about the significance of the latest information and why the investigators are petitioning to reopen this investigation.

KRISTINABORJESSON: The significance of it is that it is the hard evidence that has been reviewed and is being presented by the government’s own former, you know, members of the official investigation. And the other thing is, is that for the first time the eyewitnesses are brought in as a credible piece of the investigation. And as you know, in any investigation, it doesn’t matter whether it’s cops or reporters or whatever, the key to those investigations are firsthand sources, evidence and eyewitnesses. And these have been brought together, and that’s why it’s significant. It’s not commentators or...

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And under the NTSB’s own regulations, if there is new evidence that they did not consider previously or direct proof that their conclusion was erroneous, they have the ability to reopen the investigation. So what are the particular—the evidence that they are raising now, these investigators are raising?

KRISTINABORJESSON: I think that Tom, as our science guy on the film, is...

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Or, Tom, yes, if you could answer that?

TOMSTALCUP: Sure. The most significant piece of evidence that we have analyzed, that the NTSB has not analyzed, is the initial detonation that caused the crash. This was recorded by multiple FAA radar sites. And it was consistent and corroborates the eyewitness reports. The eyewitnesses reported something going up, heading out down towards that airplane, a long distance, colliding with it in a perpendicular fashion, detonating near or at the aircraft. Now, once it detonated, it’s just a mess out there, and particles fly along that same trajectory. So you would expect, if that really did happen, you would see evidence of that. And, yes, in fact, the radar evidence—the radar sites along Long Island picked up that exact event—supersonic debris exiting the right side of the—right side of the aircraft, consistent with the trajectory of that object.

AMYGOODMAN: I want to turn to a clip from your new film, TWA Flight 800, featuring Jim Speer, former accident investigator for the Air Line Pilots Association, talking about how he took a piece of the airplane and brought it to the FBI field lab for testing.

JIMSPEER: I knocked on the door and said, "I hear you have a machine to test for nitrates in here." And they said, "Yes, we do." And I said, "Can you show me how it works?" And they said, "Sure. We’ll run a test sample for you." And I said, "Well, how about you running my test sample? Swab this piece, and check that for me." And so they did. And, sure enough, it tested positive, which I was sure it would do—positive for residue of high explosions. So, they picked up the phone and called somebody. In 90 seconds, three FBI agents ran in the room in their coats and ties and physically pushed me aside and wouldn’t let me hear the conversation. Then they turned to me and said, "The machine has frequent false positives."

TOMSTALCUP: Sure. And what we found throughout this documentary, by interviewing the FBI chemists who were aware of that—that EGIS machine that had those explosive detections, they do not have frequent false positives. The positive detection that Jim Speer found within a week of the crash was a confirmed explosive hit on the right wing. That made The New York Times, but quickly disappeared from the government’s investigation—actually physically disappeared, as well.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, of course, the final conclusion of the NTSB was their belief that the cause was an electrical spark that ended up causing an explosion of the fuel tank in the plane?

TOMSTALCUP: That’s correct. They believe that it was an actual spark. But again, it’s very important to understand, that’s a low-velocity explosion. They said it was a subsonic deflagration. It’s not even an explosion; it’s more of an eruption. It just kind of went forward. So it was a forward-moving, low-speed eruption. What we have is a sideways-moving, high-speed detonation four times the speed of sound.

AMYGOODMAN: Let’s got to one of the eyewitnesses from your film, from TWA Flight 800, featuring some of the eyewitnesses who say they saw the plane explode.

EYEWITNESS 1: Go outside, turn to the left.

EYEWITNESS 2: Just happened to look up in the sky.

EYEWITNESS 1: And I see something that’s going across, right in my line of sight.

EYEWITNESS 3: I actually see something behind a tree line, more or less like my thumb, go up in the air.

EYEWITNESS 4: I saw what appeared to be cheap fireworks.

EYEWITNESS 5: I noticed a streak of light heading up towards the sky.

EYEWITNESS 6: I saw this white light shoot up in the sky.

EYEWITNESS 7: There’s something going up in the sky.

EYEWITNESS 8: This rocket went up in the air.

EYEWITNESS 2: And I seen this white light, and I said, "Oh, someone shot off a flare."

EYEWITNESS 9: And it looked like a flare going up. And then, the very next day, the FBI came to talk to me. It was almost abusive, in a sense. They took me into the back room. They said, "Well, we heard that you saw something. Tell us what you saw." I told them what I saw, and they looked me straight in the face and said, "You did not see that. You saw nothing."

AMYGOODMAN: And other eyewitnesses talked about that kind of abuse. One of the women who we just saw said, Kristina Borjesson, when they came to her, the FBI, just to take her testimony about what she saw, they—after she said this, what did they tell her?

KRISTINABORJESSON: They said to her, "Well, you have your papers in to become an American citizen, don’t you?" And she said, "Yes." And they said, "Well, if you want to become an American citizen, you’d best be very quiet about this." And she said, "And so, I kept quiet, and I never spoke about it."

AMYGOODMAN: The CIA later released an animated film about the explosion and investigation of TWA Flight 800.

CIAFILM: Of particular concern to FBI investigators were reports from dozens of eyewitnesses who, on the evening of July 17th, recalled seeing an object, usually described as a flare or firework, ascend and culminate in an explosion. Was it a missile? Did foreign terrorists destroy the aircraft? At the request of the FBI, CIA weapons analysts looked into this possibility.

The CIA’s conclusion? The eyewitnesses did not see a missile. Just after the aircraft exploded, it pitched up abruptly and climbed several thousand feet, from 13,800 feet to about 17,000 feet. Those who said they saw something ascend and culminate in an explosion probably saw the burning aircraft ascend and erupt into a fireball, not a missile. To date, there is no evidence that anyone saw a missile shoot down TWA Flight 800.

AMYGOODMAN: Now, that was a CIA film. Tom Stalcup, that film is what got you involved in this case. Where were you when you saw that?

TOMSTALCUP: I was on my couch watching TV. And the FBI came on. I said, "Oh, they’re talking about this plane crash. I’ll watch." And then Jim Kallstrom announced this—this video. "Hey, watch this video." And all of a sudden the big emblem of CIA came on and struck me as a little bit odd. And they kept saying, like you saw, "Not a missile." And so I turned to my girlfriend. I said, "Must have been a missile." So, ever since then, we’ve looked into the crash, and in fact it appears that it really was.

AMYGOODMAN: But, so—

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, and also, it’s kind of—it’s extraordinary to have the CIA doing what is, in essence, a propaganda video on an internal domestic incident here in the United States, that they say has nothing to do with terrorism or any—or any direct attack on this plane.

TOMSTALCUP: I agree. And I think it’s actually illegal to do domestic propaganda. I think they’re only allowed to do that internationally.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Well, then—yeah, that was an interesting—

AMYGOODMAN: And it was Jim Kallstrom that presenting this video when they were closing up their investigation?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Yeah. I mean, basically, he presented that video as a reason for the FBI backing out. But, you know, speaking of the CIA involvement, I think it’s really important to—that people know that the CIA was involved, from day two?

TOMSTALCUP: Yes.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Of the crash. From day two of the crash, the CIA was involved to handle the eyewitnesses.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And not the FBI?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Not the—well, the FBI was going around collecting witness statements, which, by the way, it’s very interesting, because they don’t record the statements when they get them. They just write up notes, and then they write up their notes of the investigations, as opposed—the interviews, as opposed to actually recording the interviews, which is—which the NTSB does do.

AMYGOODMAN: Wouldn’t the CIA be involved if they were looking to see if it was a foreign terrorist?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Well, yes, but as witness analysts?

AMYGOODMAN: You mean questioning the analysts.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Yes.

TOMSTALCUP: Yeah, well, let me just respond to that.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Mm-hmm.

TOMSTALCUP: In the very beginning, I think they were doing the right thing. They were actually giving advice, like, "Oh, this is what a foreign terrorist missile would do." But soon thereafter, within a couple weeks, their focus changed to providing, you know, technical assistance to the FBI to explaining to the FBI what the eyewitnesses saw. And as I say, actually contrary to what the FBI investigators were determining, they actually were coming out with a report, within two weeks of the crash, saying that it was most likely a missile.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, let’s go to a clip of former FBI Assistant Director James Kallstrom, who led the criminal investigation into TWA Flight 800. Here he is speaking on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on Wednesday, responding to a question about the claims made by the former investigators in your film.

JAMESKALLSTROM: I think it’s preposterous, quite frankly, Jake. You know, I understand now, just from the little bit I read in the paper, that they’re retired. You know, if they felt that way back then, they could have come to me. I was—you know, I was someone desiring to get to the bottom of this thing, believe me. And I had a reputation for not—you know, not pussyfooting around. Yet, it seems like they’ve comfortably waited 'til they have their pensions before they became whistleblowers. So I think it's a bunch of bull crap. I don’t really understand that, if they felt that strongly. And I don’t—knowing the people at NTSB and the science that they brought to it, you know, for them to disregard something that was important or correct, I just don’t see that that’s possible. I have no idea why they came forward now, other than the fact maybe it’s a good time for, you know, this idea of blowing whistles and making documentaries.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Could you respond to James Kallstrom’s comments about the investigators in the film, Kristina, and also talk about the claim that they came forward because this is, quote, "a good time for the idea of blowing whistles"?

KRISTINABORJESSON: I mean, first of all, let me just say this to—if he says that they could have come to him, these guys—Hank Hughes actually testified before a judicial committee about the problems with the FBI’s investigation. He complained—for example, Tom Thurman, who was going around pulling out pieces of—you know, pieces of debris from the seats, without any regard for trajectory, which is very important. Ricky Hahn, part of Mr. Kallstrom’s team, who was banging on pieces of debris, which is, of course, altering evidence. So, why would they want to come to Mr. Kallstrom and his team? They were deeply troubled by what they were doing. And they did try and speak out at that time. So, I mean, he’s wrong on both of those counts.

AMYGOODMAN: I mean, it’s interesting. What he might be right about, he says, what? They wanted to wait to get their pensions before they spoke out. Maybe that’s true, when you see what happens to people today, whistleblowers within agencies, that they were afraid for their livelihoods.

KRISTINABORJESSON: I think that was only one piece of it, because if you’re trying to blow the whistle and you get smacked while you’re doing it, you’re not inclined to continue doing it, yes, until you retire.

AMYGOODMAN: Let’s go to a clip of Richard Bott of the Naval Air Warfare Center responding to the claim a missile could have caused the explosion. This is also from the film, TWA Flight 800.

RICHARDBOTT: It’s possible that several types of missiles could have been in the vicinity of TWA Flight 800 at the time of the—the mishap. But the possibility that that occurred is—is hard to imagine.

AMYGOODMAN: What about that, Tom Stalcup?

TOMSTALCUP: Yes, he actually wrote a report for the NTSB called "The Missile Impact Analysis Report." And in that report, he says, "Well, there’s no evidence, except there is this hole in the left side of the plane, which seems to be—if it was anything, it was a missile coming down from above. And that just seems," like he said here, "hard to imagine." Well, that’s exactly what the eyewitnesses reported, something coming from the left.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, we reached out to the FBI and the NTSB, asking them to join us on this morning’s show. The FBI has not responded. The NTSB declined to join us; however, they did release a statement Wednesday saying they would review the petition asking them to reopen the investigation into the explosion. They wrote, quote, "The TWA Flight 800 investigation lasted four years and remains one of the NTSB’s most detailed investigations. Investigators took great care reviewing, documenting and analyzing facts and data and the NTSB held a five-day hearing to gather additional facts before determining the probable cause of the accident during a two-day Board meeting."

According to the NTSB’s report on the explosion, quote, "the probable cause of the TWA flight 800 accident was an explosion of the center wing fuel tank (CWT), resulting from ignition of the flammable fuel/air mixture in the tank. The source of ignition energy for the explosion could not be determined with certainty, but, of the sources evaluated by the investigation, the most likely was a short circuit outside of the [CWT] that allowed excessive voltage to enter it through electrical wiring associated with the fuel quantity indication system."

Now I want to play a clip from the film TWA Flight 800 of Rocky Miller, accident investigator for the flight attendants’ union, and Jim Speer, accident investigator for the Air Line Pilots Association, responding to that finding.

ROCKYMILLER: We never found any of that. We didn’t find any evidence in the wiring on the aircraft that would have indicated that a spark occurred inside the center wing tank that would blow it up.

KRISTINABORJESSON: Did anybody in the investigation find this wiring?

ROCKYMILLER: Not to my knowledge, no.

JIMSPEER: The only wiring in the center fuel tank is to the fuel quantity gauge, and that’s a fine wire meant for milliamps is. The main power on the airplane is 115 volts AC, It would have taken 1,200 volts to arc the fuel quantity probe, and there’s no 1,200-volt electricity on the airplane, outside of the engine igniters. And that’s in—it’s individual to each engine. So, the cause of the ignition of the center fuel tank had to be something other than airplane electronics.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Jim Speer of the Air Line Pilots Association. Your response to some of the NTSB’s claims, as well as their rebuttal?

TOMSTALCUP: Yes, well, you know, the center wing tank vapors could have exploded, but this isn’t news. I mean, Boeing knew this. They actually design their tanks to always assume that they have explosive vapors in those tanks. What they do is they design it so there’s no way high voltage can get into these tanks. The wires that go to those lines that he was talking about, those low-voltage lines, are protected by a nylon sheet that’s impregnated with varnish. To have any kind of chafe cutting through that nylon and then getting that short circuit, I just can’t see how that’s possible. And, actually, the NTSB, sorry, has never duplicated that spark from airplane electronics.

AMYGOODMAN: And this issue of the naval exercise that was taking place, Kristina?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Well, I mean, that’s part—we put that in the circumstantial evidence pile. And we don’t discuss it, because it isn’t hard evidence. It isn’t firsthand source. And unless an—and that’s why we are submitting this petition, because it is something that should be examined further. But, you know, we’re—

AMYGOODMAN: What was going on at the time?

KRISTINABORJESSON: There was a military exercise going on at the time in the area, and they had activated some warning areas, some warning areas there. And there were all kinds of vessels out there. But, again, we don’t—we don’t go there, because there is no—we don’t have—we don’t have any hard evidence.

AMYGOODMAN: So why call to reopen this?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Because it needs to be looked at, because the actual cause of the crash is an ordnance explosion outside the airplane. So, obviously, that’s not a center wing fuel tank explosion.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But there is a—you do have factual evidence of the role that the Navy played in the original investigation, don’t you, in terms of what you found out about their role?

KRISTINABORJESSON: Well, I mean, they were—they were a huge part of the recovery. They recovered the wreckage. It was very interesting that Navy divers went and dove by themselves for a few days before they allowed the NTSB divers—the NYPD divers to go in. The CBS’s law enforcement consultant, Paul Ragonese, who was friendly with those guys, they told him that. So, there were some odd things going on from the very beginning.

AMYGOODMAN: Well, this film is going to air, your film, Kristina Borjesson and Tom Stalcup, on July 17th, 17 years after the explosion of TWA Flight 800. And that’s the name of the film, TWA Flight 800. It will air on EPIX on July 17th. That does it for this segment. We’ll continue to follow this story. Stay with us.

This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Juan González co-host's Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman. González has been a professional journalist for more than 30 years and a staff columnist at the New York Daily News since 1987. He is a two-time recipient of the George Polk Award.

Amy Goodman is the host and executive producer of Democracy Now!, a national, daily, independent, award-winning news program airing on over 1,100 public television and radio stations worldwide. Time Magazine named Democracy Now! its "Pick of the Podcasts," along with NBC's Meet the Press.